I'm happy to say that the plans for my Dedicated Sharpening Bench are now available for free download. It's a pdf file so feel free to send me an email and I'll forward them along to you. You can save the pics here from the blog but I don't think the resolution is as good.
This bench was a great hand tool project and would make a nice craft table or child size workbench. A friend of mine said it would be perfect for tying flies and my wife mentioned it would make a nice kitchen island but I think I'd raise it up about 8" in height for that application. Discovering and uncovering design challenges and finding ways to bring solutions into a practical but aesthetically pleasing project is a wonderful experience. I'm sure you could find ways to adapt this bench design to your own system and work shop needs. I'd love to hear about them-
If you have limited shop space and you're considering building this design as a work bench then I'd caution you. Sure, you could stick a face vise on the end and cut dovetails until your hearts content but for cabinet making applications where hand planing and chopping mortises are common practice then you may want to up-scale the dimensions by at least half. That's just my opinion from working on a full size workbench and finding limitations in it. I can't imagine trying to build a piece of furniture on a bench this size. That said, for sharpening saws, plane irons and chisles it's a perfect size for my needs.
I'm the worst when it comes to computers except e-mail and blogging so it's no surprise I can't figure out how to upload a pdf. file here to Blogger...
oh well...drop me a line if you'd like me to send you the file....
cheers!
